


Mandate of Heaven

by thesometimeswarrior



Series: Flash Fic (A Collection of Drabbles, Double Drabbles, and Triple Drabbles) [20]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Angst, Book 3: Fire, Canon Compliant, Character Study, Gen, Triple Drabble, ozai's a horrible father
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-07
Updated: 2017-11-07
Packaged: 2019-01-30 20:46:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12661116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesometimeswarrior/pseuds/thesometimeswarrior
Summary: He has worked far too hard, struggled and connived and clawed for his power, to believe in the divine right to rule.Ozai, when they drag Iroh home in chains.





	Mandate of Heaven

He has worked far too hard, struggled and connived and clawed for his power, to believe in the divine right to rule. The crown on his head was _earned_ , not bestowed, and certainly not bestowed by Spirits who have never looked kindly on _him_ , never shown _him_ any favor.

(He does not resent it—he has always had to struggle and fight, and that has made him strong. Has made him into who he is—the mighty monarch who will _win_ this War for his country.) 

(He doesn’t believe in the divine right to rule but ensures his daughter does—second-born and prodigious, the ruler their Nation needs, far more qualified to rule than her embarrassing and bumbling older brother.)

(If _her_ right to this crown is divine, then so too his must be.)

(He _doesn’t_ believe in the divine right to rule. He doesn’t care, doesn’t resent it. He _doesn’t._ )

They bring his traitorous brother back in chains. A traitor should be executed, a two-time traitor all the more so. It would be so _pleasurable_ to watch him burn, cathartic to see him turn to ashes, freeing to smell the black smoke of the execution pyre, cleansing for the country to be purged of such disloyalty and weakness.

A traitor should be executed, but somehow his cowardly _weak_ brother is still admired and loved by much of the army. Militaries turn on their monarchs; there are lines unwise for him to cross. And he may be the Phoenix King, but he doesn’t believe in the divine right to rule, knows that no Spirit or Dragon would fight by his side. 

A traitor should be executed, but his non-divine rule is so infuriatingly precarious. So Ozai chucks Iroh in prison, simmers and snarls as he sits alone on his throne.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! I love comments!


End file.
